The Experiment
In 1988, Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues published a report suggesting a causal link between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism in children. According to the GI Society, Wakefield’s cohorts consisted of 12 patients. The small sample size increases the margin of error, decreasing the precision of the results. But, these results were biased from the start. Wakefield failed to conduct a blind study to reduce bias: the 12 children were either specifically chosen by Wakefield or by the lawyer who funded him.
Money Bias
His motivation was another problem in this study- money seems to be the root of the problem with Wakefield’s journal. The study was funded by a lawyer who was funded by parents against vaccinations. Not only was Wakefield helping the lawyer with his anti-vaccine lawsuit, but he also worked with a parent of one of the patients to patent a new “safer” version of the measles vaccine. He even worked on multiple businesses to treat a syndrome he made up in the study. Despite the unreliability of Wakefield’s journal, many parents refused to vaccinate their children.
Anti-Vaxxers
The NCBI claims that in response to the publication of Wakefield’s study, scientists around the world made efforts to expose the fraud of the study. Nevertheless, the number of MMR vaccines received decreased, while the occurrence of measles increased; the nonvaccination of children caused the measles outbreak in the UK in 2008 and 2009. Parents chose to believe one study, but not the numerous other studies that refute its claims. By choosing not to vaccinate, anti-vaxxers put other children at risk. Herd immunity can only do so much without a large percentage of the population vaccinated- by avoiding the “risk of autism,” anti-vaxxers risk the health of their children and the rest of the population. The Wakefield study has been labeled as a scientific fraud, but its “results” continue to fuel the irrational fear of vaccines.
Microbiology 